Mommy's Pain

OK world. This is a real illness.  I was diagnosed many years ago, and it has been getting worse and worse with stress.  Making it hard to do anything.  My family thinks I'm lazy because suddenly during the day I need to lay down and sleep.  I can't help it...it feels as though someone pulls the plug on your energy.

I have pain on all 18 of the tender points...  the worse ones today are my shoulders, back and really bad pain on the back of my head behind my ears. My neck is swollen... and my entire body just aches like I have the flu...  almost constantly.

Caring for Daniel never stops...  but it hurts my body

It gets exhausting that so many people do not recognize that this exists...  they just tell me to exercise, lose weight, take vitamin D, and it will go away.  Those things help reduce the pain of symptoms...but Fibromyalgia is Chronic.   HAH!!!  even the spell checker does not recognize the word.

 Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues. Researchers believe that fibromyalgia amplifies painful sensations by affecting the way your brain processes pain signals.

A TYPICAL Julie Chronic Fatigue Nap attack

Symptoms sometimes begin after a physical trauma, surgery, infection or significant psychological stress. In other cases, symptoms gradually accumulate over time with no single triggering event.

Women are much more likely to develop fibromyalgia than are men. Many people who have fibromyalgia also have tension headaches, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety and depression.

The pain associated with fibromyalgiaoften is described as a constant dull ache, typically arising from muscles. To be considered widespread, the pain must occur on both sides of your body and above and below your waist.

Fibromyalgia is characterized by additional pain when firm pressure is applied to specific areas of your body, called tender points. Tender point locations include:

• Back of the head
• Between shoulder blades
• Top of shoulders
• Front sides of neck
• Upper chest
• Outer elbows
• Upper hips
• Sides of hips
• Inner knees

Fatigue and sleep disturbances
People with fibromyalgia often awaken tired, even though they report sleeping for long periods of time. Sleep is frequently disrupted by pain, and many patients with fibromyalgia have other sleep disorders, such as restless legs syndrome and sleep apnea, that further worsen symp

Anyhow, I just felt like writing about the fact that each day of my life I wake up in pain.... I take Lyrica, Ultram, Effexor and Wellbutrin along with alot of advil...  and once it kicks in I can function.   Depression and feelings related to the stress of home often put me into a hopeless cycle of not exercising and getting tired.  But if I force myself to just walk...get fresh air...  I feel better.   I really know what helps....but I have to manage three children including Daniel.  

It is stressful even just trying to de stress the stress.   And a life of pain becomes a physical life of pain.  Makes you really wonder why sometimes.

Just keep going Julie..  Just keep going.